A Single Mission
by FlowerOwl
Summary: Being forced to flee to Wakanda and watching the world turn against him does not change Steve's main priority: to ensure Bucky's safety.


Life in Wakanda was… good. That was the word Steve would use to describe his new routine. Better than prison, better than constantly having to look over his shoulder, fearing that the government would decide it was too dangerous to have someone who had seen first-hand how corrupt the very premise for the Accords had been out there and decide to force some of the superheroes who had not fled in time to go after them, Wakanda was better than all of that. But it was not the same as all of them living in the Compound; it wasn't the way it was supposed to be.

They weren't able to move around freely, no, now they had to speak to the guards that had been positioned at every exit of section of the palace they had been allowed to stay in just because they wanted to go outside and get some fresh air for a change. Steve had tried to be understanding, he really had. Outside, there was no saying what could happen to them. T'Challa could guarantee their safety, but only when they stayed inside the palace and the protection it offered.

But still… from time to time, Steve got the feeling that T'Challa could have done more.

For starters, Steve had barely entered the training room when someone made her way over to him, only to introduce herself as the leader of the Dora Milaje, inform him that he was not permitted in the room and that she would escort him back to his quarters immediately.

He had tried to tell her that since she wasn't using all of the training equipment herself, there was no need for him to leave the room, but she had ignored it, simply muttering something about the Dora Milaje using the room. Steve didn't miss the way she made it sound like the fact that their training sessions was kept secret from everyone was of vital importance to their ability to protect the royal family. It was the years of having to deal with Tony constant bragging about his newest gadget that made Steve able to bite back a remark about how unprofessional the woman's behaviour was, treating the king's guests this way.

So, already sensing that she would not listen to reason, Steve stayed silent, waiting for the door to close behind her before he went to talk to Nat.

Natasha was better at this, better than Steve at figuring out how to handle the petty displays of power.

He found her in her room, sitting in front of a computer, a focused look on her face that got replaced by annoyance when he pulled her away from what she had been doing. However, as he told her what had happened, the annoyance quickly made way for sympathy.

"Don't worry too much about it," she said, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure T'Challa will say something to her—I mean, we have to train if we want to be able to save the world when it inevitably realises how big of a mistake the Accords were—she will simply have to get over herself."

Steve nodded, allowing himself to listen to her. Nat was right, every second now, the very politicians that had been the reason they had had to leave the world unprotected as they made their escape to Wakanda would realise their mistake and beg for them to come back. They just had to wait for the next crisis to occur, and then they would see how much they really needed the Avengers.

Besides, the woman had hardly been the leader of the Dora Milaje. From what Steve had learnt from T'Challa and the snippets of conversation he had heard while visiting Bucky in the lab, the Dora Milaje was a highly respected elite team of bodyguards. Surely, someone like the woman in the training room who was so quick to act on her emotions could not be the leader of such a team.

So Steve tried to ignore the growing feeling of unease in his stomach. It was fine. They were fine, and it was only a question of time before the world would realise that they were needed and tell them to come back. And luckily for the world and the people in it, Steve knew that he would be back in an instant once things went wrong.

In the meantime, he simply had to wait for the politicians' agenda to change, then they would come to them, pleading for them to return once more.

Right now, they were in Wakanda, but they would soon be home again, and Steve could hardly wait for it to happen. Although the palace was a gilded cage designed to keep them safe from the world, it did not change the fact that they were trapped.

The first signs that the government might have been better at hiding the true nature of the Accords from the public than Steve and his team had expected came a little week later.

Sam was the one to deliver the news, bursting into their living room, holding up his phone for all of them to see.

"Have any of you checked Twitter recently?" he asked, and Steve could hear the panic hidden under a thin layer of calmness as Sam continued into the middle of the room to sit down on the couch next to him. As Steve took the phone from Sam, the rest of the team gathered around them.

The couch dipped down slightly as Nat flopped down next to Steve, raising an eyebrow at Sam. "No, I haven't. Why?"

Rather than answering, Sam simply pointed at the screen, and they leant in to get a look.

Around him, Steve heard varied sounds of anger, disappointment, and in Nat's case a soft 'hmm', completely devoid of surprise. Still, it took him a while longer to figure out just what had resulted in that response. From what he could see, it was just another article talking about the usual Twitter-nonsense.

Then he got to the bottom of the page and realised what they had seen.

According to the article, the trending hashtag on Twitter was #TeamIronMan, closely followed by #EffTheRogues.

"The public hates us," Steve heard Sam say, barely able to make out the words over the sensation of his blood turning into ice in his veins, "they have picked a side, and trust me, it isn't ours. We are never going to be able to go home."

Steve was about to remind him that they could not allow themselves to lose hope, not when the entire world depended on them, but Clint was quicker.

"You can't think like that. Look, I am willing to bet that this is just Stark showing off how rich he is. He bought these tweets just to make it look like everyone with a brain can't figure out that he was in the wrong when he sided with the Accords Council," Clint declared with infectious confidence that made Steve feel just a tiny bit warmer as he looked up at his teammates.

"Could he do that?" he asked, "Can Tony really buy tweets like that?"

The room went silent for a moment, and like he so often did when the strange silence filled the room, Steve felt the pang of irritation as he remembered how Scott had left them not even a day after arriving in Wakanda. Granted, Steve really shouldn't have expected someone he barely knew to be loyal, he should have expected Scott to save himself and leave the rest of them behind the second he got the chance, but Scott's betrayal felt like yet another reminder of how Tony choosing corrupt politicians with agendas over the team had resulted in the divide between them.

Finally, Nat spoke up, breaking the silence. "I think he can, or at least he can pay people to tweet the things he tells them to," she said.

"Really?" they turned around to see Sam look at Natasha, a slightly confused look in his eyes. "Because I checked the tweets, and let me tell you that this is not just a thing in the US—this is everywhere, all over the world." when no one opened their mouth to say anything, Sam continued. "Look, I do not doubt that you guys know him better than I do, but it seems like a lot of work to pay everyone to do this, even for Stark."

"When you have enough money, you can do almost anything," Nat assured him, "besides, it might not even be real people writing those posts. For all we know, it could be bots designed to sway the public opinion—Tony was always good at building stuff like that."

The words _like when he built Ultron_ were left unsaid, but as Steve looked around at his friends he knew that they were all thinking the same thing: if Tony could build a being like Ultron, capable of escaping through the internet, and J.A.R.V.I.S, an AI that had seemed to almost be able to predict what they would say before they had even uttered a word, how difficult could it be for him to set up a system of bots creating fake tweets?

"What should we do then?" Steve asked, instinctively looking over at Nat for an answer.

Natasha bit her lip, waiting for a moment before she acknowledged the question with a short nod. "I say we do nothing. We wait for this to end—the people will realise that they are being manipulated by the government sooner or later, and then we will be there, ready to help them once again."

"Why should we even bother?" Wanda spoke up, making all of them look over at her in surprise. Ever since they had arrived in Wakanda, Steve had rarely heard Wanda say more than a couple of words at a time. The fact that she was finally starting to settle into her new life was one of the only good signs they had received lately. "The world left us all alone when we needed their help the most. I would be more than happy to see the people responsible for our exile suffer." while she spoke, red mist appeared in the air around her, moving to twirl around her hands.

It was during moments like these that Steve was reminded of how young Wanda actually was. Though she had been faced with the same responsibilities as the adult members of the Avengers and had been able to handle them like any other, Wanda had still barely left childhood, still much younger than the rest of them.

"Wanda," Steve said softly, moving over towards her to place a calming hand on her shoulder. He was happy to see the magic dissolve as Wanda looked up at him, "we can't think like that. We are heroes and the world needs us. That has to come before anything else, do you understand? Our own personal feelings don't matter when the world is at risk."

For a moment, he almost expected Wanda to shake her head. But then she let out a sigh.

"I do. It's just not right that after everything we have done, the government was able to turn the people against us so easily."

"I know." and Steve truly did. He was a hero, he had crashed a plane into the ocean, had done it all to save the world and yet this was the way the world had decided to reward him: by trying to control him and then imprisoning his friends when they had stood up to the bullies in an attempt to protect the little guy. "But look on the bright side of it. If the world was able to turn against us that quickly, it will be just as easy to make them stand with us once again."

"Not with Stark doing everything he can to make our lives harder," Wanda mumbled, "as if murdering my parents and Pietro wasn't enough, now he is also doing everything in his power to make the world afraid of me. Again." she looked down towards her hands, but Steve could still see the tears in the corners of her eyes.

Pulling Wanda in for a hug, he looked over towards the rest of the team, doing his best to make his voice appear sure and decisive. "We aren't going to do anything; we won't comment on any of the tweets, we won't post anything yourselves. This will all blow over in a few days, and then we will be ready to go back."

His words were met with a smile from both Natasha and Clint. Sam, however, Steve noted, opened his mouth, almost like he wanted to comment on the plan, before closing it again and giving Steve a short nod as he turned around, leaving through the same door that led into his bedroom.

When Steve leant in close, he could almost ignore the cold feeling of the glass that separated him from Bucky and make himself believe that Bucky was merely asleep and would wake up any second, opening his eyes, already having a wide smile and a witty remark about Steve ready the way he had used to when they were younger.

But of course that was not the case. Bucky was still frozen, waiting for the scientists around them to figure out a way to rid his mind of the trigger words.

Really, the world seemed to have a cruel sense of humour. They had both been assumed dead, only to wake up in the future, fate leading them to find each other again, before making it so that for Bucky slipped away from Steve yet again. How many more times would he have to lose his best friend?

"Bucky," Steve whispered, not wanting any of the scientists to get an excuse to kick him out of the room, "please wake up. The world has gone crazy; I don't know what to do…"

But, of course, Bucky did not wake up and his breathing was the only answer Steve could get, the movement of Bucky's chest—slowly, even, and controlled—the only visible sign that he was still alive..

In a way, Steve used the chances he got to visit Bucky to punish himself. He had failed. He had failed when he let Bucky join the army without him, he had failed when he had not been able to grab Bucky's hand in time, causing his best friend to fall from the train, he had failed when he had been shoved into the future, severing his last ties to his home, and he had failed to protect Bucky from the government's irrational fear of him.

He had failed and lost Bucky so many times, and now Bucky was here, right in front of him, and yet still out of reach.

It would be so easy to give in, to break the barrier that separated them and run away with Bucky, and it was what Steve dreamt of doing at night, sometimes finding himself pacing around in the corridor outside his room, doing his best to ignore the urge to run to the laboratory and fight to free Bucky. It would have been a hopeless mission. Steve knew that had it not been for the Cryostasis Chamber he would be able to escape from the palace, he could do it even if he had to carry Bucky, but he didn't know what kind of electronics and security measures Shuri had put in place to protect her workspace, and the last thing he wanted was for anyone or anything to end up hurting Bucky.

Still, as Steve looked at the Cryostasis Chamber, he couldn't help but picture how his shield would have been able to cut through it like it was butter.

He had left the weapon with Tony in the bunker in Siberia in an attempt to show Tony that they were heroes and more than just fancy gadgets, but he regretted that decision now. The shield would have been invaluable. If nothing else, Steve would have loved to be able to feel the weight of it again and remember that no matter what the government had decided, he was still Captain America, and he would fight for the people.

The next time they were faced with bad news, it was Natasha who brought it to them, sitting them down in front of her computer as she gestured towards the screen.

"Look at what he has done," she said, and for once, Steve could hear Nat's façade crack, revealing the uncertainty behind.

The screen showed a website, the design of it dominated by different shades of grey, the Avengers-logo in the top left corner being the only thing that did not make Steve want to ask what had happened to art while he had been frozen in ice. But he pushed the thought aside. There were more important things to think about now.

As he scanned through the text, he began to realise why it had caused such a reaction from Nat.

It was a page seemingly meant as a way for the public to get to know the New Avengers, some kind of new team that had been assembled after Steve and the rest of the Avengers had been forced to flee to Wakanda. But although it looked fairly official, Steve could not spot anyone who seemed competent enough to be entrusted with the task of keeping the world safe. Instead, there were pictures and descriptions of people, Steve had never heard about.

"They are trying to replace us," Clint said, breaking the silence, "that's what this is. Stark decided that he had to be petty and show us that he is the one with all of the power in this situation, so he went out and made all of this!"

"It says that they have been hired and approved by both the Accords Council and the UN," Sam said, pointed towards the corner of the page, "so I doubt that he could have anything to do with this."

"No, you don't know Tony. This is exactly something he would do in an attempt to make us run back to him and beg for his forgiveness," Nat said, and Steve was happy to hear that her tone was once again firm.

Sam shrugged. "It just seems like a lot of work for one man."

That was something Steve could understand. It must be hard for someone who had never met Tony to imagine just how much Tony could get done if he was determined enough. Once, that kind of stubborn dedication had been used to better the team, to better the world, but it seemed that after they had been forced to leave, Tony had turned it into a destructive force, set on singlehandedly dismantling everything the Avengers had once represented. But no matter what, Steve could not allow the rest of his team to lose morale, so he shoved his fears into the back of his mind, forcing himself to sound cheery.

"This is nothing to worry about. Look at this," he pointed towards one of the pictures on the screen, his attention drawn to the garish red colour of the cape the man on the screen was wearing, "Doctor Strange? They are recruiting beginners, complete nobodies. Trust me, in a few weeks, everyone involved in this will be forced to admit their mistake, and then they will ask us to come home again."

Receiving murmurs of agreement, Steve closed the computer. There was no need to for them to needlessly try to sabotage themselves. As long as they held their heads high, there was no doubt in Steve's mind that they would get home soon.

After the reveal of the website, Steve had taken to carrying his phone with him everywhere he went. In the beginning, he had checked it a couple of times a day, waiting for Tony to call him, but now that Tony had decided to try to create his own team, Steve knew that the billionaire would soon reach the point where he had to admit that he needed them. He could call any second now, telling them that they were needed back home, that the government had finally seen reason.

And when that happened, Steve would be ready to forgive him.

If nothing else, the weeks he had spent in Wakanda already, had given Steve time to go over what had happened between them in Siberia. Now, with the benefit of hindsight, he was able to admit that they had both made mistakes in that bunker. Yes, Tony had lashed out, attacking Bucky when it had been so obvious that Bucky was a victim in the situation, having been brainwashed by HYDRA and forced to work for them, but Steve had been the one to bring Bucky there in the first place. If he had left Bucky behind, gotten him someplace safe and then left to search for the remaining Winter Soldiers on his own, Bucky would not have been in the room with them when Zemo had tricked Tony into watched the video. Then, with Bucky out of harm's way, Steve would have been able to get through to Tony, and Tony would have gotten the news about his parents' death the way he should have learnt the truth about Howard and Maria Stark's death in the first place: in a calm environment.

Lately, he had even begun toying with the idea of simply calling Tony. It was perhaps not the right way to go about it—after all, Tony had at least partly been involved in the situations leading up to the point where Steve had to go free the rest of his team from the Raft to bring them to safety in Wakanda—but Steve knew that if he waited for Tony to call him, Tony's pride and need to feel that he was right might very well keep him from calling, no matter how badly the world needed them to come back.

That was why Steve found himself anxiously pacing around in his room that morning, phone pressed against his ear as he waited for Tony to answer the call.

It beeped once.

Twice.

In the end, it went to voicemail, but Steve figured that it was not that bad. He could not really expect Tony to carry the phone with him everywhere just because Steve did, that was not Tony's style at all.

"Hi, Tony," Steve began, going over his carefully rehearsed speech in his head, "I just called to see if you were okay. We have heard a lot about you here in—" he barely managed to stop himself in time before he had managed to give away their location, disguising his mistake as a cough, "here, where we are now. I hope you got my letter, well, I mean, you have to, if not, you would not have this phone as well. I just wanted to tell you that I meant what I wrote in the letter. When you need us, don't hesitate to reach out—I know you have your ways to contact us—and we will be there in an instant." Steve waited for a moment before he pressed the button to end the call, finding himself looking down at the phone with a weird feeling in his stomach.

There was something about it that didn't feel right.

That was how Clint found him, looking down at a phone with a faint crease between his brows, when he burst into the room a while later.

"Sorry, I was just looking for—" Clint started before he noticed the phone in Steve's hand. "Oh, did you try to call someone?" he asked, and for the first time since they had arrived in Wakanda, there was no bitter edge to his voice.

"Yes."

"Let me guess, they didn't answer the phone?" when Steve simply nodded, Clint walked over to stand next to him, patting him on the shoulder. "I get that. Laura hasn't answered the phone any of the times I tried to call her, and, well… I can only hope that she and the children are okay."

Hearing Clint, the one Steve had always counted on to see the humour in the situation, sounding so unsure made Steve somehow forget about his own problems, enabling him to, for a moment, put on his old role of the one meant to keep up morale.

"Hey, you can't think like that," Steve reminded him gently, "the government can't do anything to her, they know that we would find out and that trying to harm the families of known superheroes would only serve to show the public how the Accords were always meant as a way for the government to control us. Look, I promise you that your family is safe. They are probably just being watched by the Accords Council, but the moment she gets a chance, I'm sure that Laura will find a way to contact you."

Clint nodded, still not looking entirely convinced, but Steve decided that it was good enough. Besides, he was not sure he could keep up the façade for much longer. Although he wanted to believe that there was some good left in the world, the last couple of months seemed intent to prove him wrong.

As Clint left the room again, Steve found himself involuntarily looking at the phone, almost hoping that Tony had called back while he had been busy comforting Clint.

But, no, there was nothing. The phone was still silent.

It stayed that way

As weeks turned into months, the days slowly began to turn into a blur of trying to get a chance to talk with T'Challa to ask for training equipment, sitting in the living room and discussing what their next move should be, and staring at the phone, almost like he could force it to show a missed message from Tony through willpower alone. It was eerily quiet most of the time, as the rest of Steve's team seemed to have begun to stay in their room when not explicitly asked to join him in the living room for another team meeting.

Perhaps that was why Steve already knew that there was something wrong when Sam came storming into the room, anger and cold fury almost seeming to radiate from him, and the rest of the team following right behind.

"Sam?" Steve asked, already getting up from the chair he had been sitting on. "What is wrong? Has something happened?"

"Yes, _Rogers_, something has happened!" Sam snapped, and hearing the venom in the pronunciation of his own name almost made Steve take a step back. But he stopped himself in time. He was the leader of this team and he had to act like it.

"Well, then tell me what it is."

"No, I think I will show you." Sam shot the rest of the team a look before nodding towards the couch facing the television. "All of you. Sit down."

There was no room for objections in his voice and so, they all obeyed, shooting each other worried glances as they went to sit down.

"Do you know what has happened?" Steve whispered to Nat as he followed Sam's path over to the television with his eyes, not missing the way Sam stopped to take a couple of deep breaths before moving to press the button to turn on the device. Steve could hear Wanda whisper something to Clint next to him, and the realisation that even with her powers, she did not know what had happened to Sam did nothing to ease his worries.

Nat shook her head. "No idea. He just told us that he had something he wanted to show us all at the same time."

"This video went online last night," Sam said, cutting straight through the hushed whispers in the room, "and although the news channels didn't find it until this morning, it is already all over the internet, and now on every news channel as well."

"What is all over the internet?" Steve asked.

But Sam silenced him with a glare colder than ice. "This it," he said and pressed the button.

On the screen, Steve saw a newscaster sitting behind the usual table, looking into the camera. Nothing out of the ordinary. But then he listened to what she was saying.

"Though the video was uploaded anonymously, Stark Industries has already made an announcement, confirming the events shown in the footage. We have yet to receive any comment from Mr. Stark himself, but the CEO of Stark Industries, Virginia Potts, has released a personal statement, asking everyone who sees the video to give Mr. Stark time to grieve in privacy. The video will be shown in just a minute, but we warn you that it contains graphic images."

The screen flashed, and suddenly, Steve saw the three of them—himself, Bucky, and Tony—back in the bunker, watching the footage of the Starks' murder, watching himself avert his gaze from Tony's as he told him that he had not known it was Bucky, only for Tony's voice to turn into a growl when he repeated the question once more.

He already knew how it would end, his shield coming down close to the camera before everything went dark and it cut back to the newscaster in the studio.

"Sam, I—" Steve began, but Sam did not give him the chance to finish the sentence.

"No! You told me that Stark attacked Bucky completely unprovoked and that you had to step in to keep Bucky alive. When were you going to tell me that Stark only attacked Bucky after watching Bucky kill his parents and that you then proceeded to almost kill him before abandoning him alone in the bunker? Were you ever going to tell me or did you just hope that I would never find out?" Sam stopped to breathe, and Steve took the opportunity to explain what had happened.

"You don't understand—"

"Oh, I understand completely!"

"—it wasn't Bucky! Tony knew that, he knew that Bucky had been brainwashed into killing Howard and Maria, but he still attacked him!" without realising, Steve had jumped to his feet, his voice rising.

"Of course he attacked Bucky!" Sam yelled, stepping closer to Steve in response. "He just watched him murder his parents, of course he was not going to sit down calmly to listen to you explain how you perceived the situation!"

"Well, what did you expect me to have done? Was I supposed to just stand by and let Bucky die?"

"You were supposed to step in between them to give Bucky time to get away and Stark a chance to calm down, not begin to hit him with your shield! How was not your first instinct, do you not have any sympathy for other people?"

Around them, the rest of the team had gotten up as well. Steve saw Nat move over, attempting to put an arm around Sam's shoulders, but he shoved her away, maintaining eye contact with Steve through it all.

Giving up on getting closer to him, Nat held up her hand in a placating gesture. "Sam, look, it has been years since Tony's parents were killed. Should Steve have been better at handling the situation in Siberia? Yes, I won't try to argue that he did not make several mistakes." Steve was about to open his mouth, but the look Natasha sent him made him stay quiet. "But Tony should also have been able to handle finding out that the details about his parents' were slightly different than what he had been told."

"Slightly different?" Sam repeated, his voice getting more and more high-pitched with every word. "He just watched someone kill his parents while the person in question was standing next to him, and you are telling me that he should have been able to stay completely calm and rational because he had been told that they had died in a car crash? Are you even hearing what you are saying? Can't _any_ of you imagine how it must have felt for him to watch the footage?"

Wanda shrugged. "Why should I care? Stark killed my parents; I have no sympathy for him having to watch his parents get killed like I did."

Looking back at Sam, Steve saw his friends open his mouth like he wanted to say something. But though Sam kept forming silent words, no sound came out as he stared at them, eyes wide like he only then truly saw them.

"You—" Sam said breathlessly, "I can't believe it, I can't…"

"Sam…" Steve moved closer to him, but the movement only caused Sam to back away, moving over to the opposite side of the couches, keeping as much distance between himself and the rest of the team as the room allowed.

"No, you don't get to tell me how to feel about this, just like none of you have any right to decide when Stark should have been done grieving the loss of his parents," Sam said, "I am done. I will go home, face everyone, and accept responsibility for what I have done, and don't you dare make an attempt to stop me!"

It was already too late when Steve realised that Sam was standing right in front of the door leading to the corridor that connected the rooms T'Challa had provided them to the rest of the palace. Before he had the chance to do anything other than weakly mumbling Sam's name, the other man had spun around, barely managing to stay upright as he hurried away from them, slamming the door behind him.

In the silence that had followed Sam's declaration, it was the sudden loud sound of the door hitting the door frame that pulled Steve back to reality.

He jumped over the couch, Natasha barely stepping aside in time for him to break into a sprint towards the exit. But Steve didn't slow down, and the next moment, he had thrown open the door, following Sam into the corridor outside.

Sam was already at the other end of the hallway, talking with one of the two guards that seemed to be there day and night in a hushed tone.

"Sam!" Steve yelled, the look the right guard sent him telling him to stay where he was. "Please, come back, let us talk about this like adults!"

"I am sorry, Steve, I really am," Sam said, and Steve felt his chest tighten when Sam didn't even bother to turn around to look at him, "but I can't do this anymore. If you want to stay here and continue to pretend that you are the heroes in this situation, I won't stop you. I just can't be a part of it anymore." With that, he stepped closer to the guards and, unlike how they always seemed determined to do everything to prevent Steve from accessing the rest of the palace, they stepped aside, allowing Sam to walk right past them.

A few seconds later, he turned around the corner and disappeared from view.

The only thing that kept Steve from crumbling and fall to the floor was the look of contempt he received from both of the guards. He could almost feel it as a physical pang of agony when he realised that none of them had done anything to help, to give him a chance to explain himself.

"I think you should return to your rooms now," the left guard informed him, though the tone of her voice made it clear that her words were not to be seen as a suggestion. They were an order.

For once not having any energy left to fight, Steve did as she said, turning around and retreating back into the living room.

After Sam left, Steve began to spend as much time as he possibly could in the laboratory with Bucky, only leaving when the scientist made it clear that they would not hesitate to get the Dora Milaje to escort him out and returning the next morning to sit on the little stool he had found in the corner of the room. There, he could spend hours watching how Bucky's chest would rise and fall, fearing each second that Bucky's next breath would also be his last.

He couldn't face his team. They were looking to him, expecting him to keep up the morale, but he just couldn't look them in the eye anymore, not when he was waiting for another one of them to decide that they would rather return back home and give in to the Accords Council than stay and wait for the moment when the world would finally wake up.

Not that Steve could blame them. If he was honest, he was not sure he could have lasted this long in Wakanda had it not been for Bucky. In the midst of all the uncertainty and pain, Bucky was the only person Steve could truly count on. He had always been.

That was the reason why Steve had to grab onto a table to keep himself from falling over when he entered the lab that morning, only to see that the Cryostasis Chamber was empty and that Bucky was nowhere to be seen. Instead, T'Challa was standing where Steve's stool used to be, facing away from him and with his hands clasped behind his back.

Still, Steve knew that T'Challa had noticed his presence, and as soon as Steve took a step into the room, the young king turned around to look at him.

"Mr. Rogers," he greeted, "I was told by Shuri that I would surely be able to find you here."

"Where is Bucky?" Steve asked, the shock of his best friend no longer being there making him ignore the lack of the word 'Captain' in front of his name.

"Mr. Barnes left Wakanda by plane a couple of hours ago."

It felt like a punch to the gut. Bucky was gone? Steve had been there, watching him and making sure he was safe just last night, and now Bucky had left the country, all because Steve had not been there to protect him.

"What? How could you let him leave, you know that he still has the trigger words in his brain!"

"I assure you that when my sister deemed it safe for him to be on a plane for the duration of the flight, she knew what she was talking about."

"But why? You told me that you would heal him, you said that you would make sure he was safe!" although Steve knew that the last thing he needed now was for T'Challa to summon the guards to make Steve leave the room, he couldn't keep the accusatory tone out of his voice as he walked closer to T'Challa, once again wishing he had not left his shield behind in that bunker in Siberia.

"And so I will." T'Challa lifted an eyebrow, almost like he was silently challenging Steve to test his patience again. "But Shuri advised me to send him back to the US for the remaining steps of his treatment, and I trust her judgement."

"You sent him back to the US?" this time, there was no risk of Steve raising his voice and getting kicked out of the room; T'Challa's revelation had left him unable to do anything but whisper. "You sent him back knowing that the rest of the world is only waiting for a chance to kill him?" though his voice was hushed, the harsh tone was not one T'Challa could fail to notice.

"And yet it was what both Shuri and I deemed safest," T'Challa responded, the cold look in his eyes telling Steve what T'Challa did not:_ if you dare to question the decision, you will insult the only person shielding you from the wrath of the world_.

But Steve had never been the one to give up when faced with bullying tactics, so he continued. "But Shuri was the one who was supposed to treat him; I thought she was a genius."

"Mr. Rogers, you are only here because I have continually gone against the wishes of my people, do not test your luck. For your information, I can tell you that guaranteeing Mr. Barnes' wellbeing entails more than simply freeing him from the influence of the trigger words. I have personally attempted to make the public aware of this an attempt to convince the court that he cannot be held responsible for the actions of the Winter Soldier, but everything he did while in Romania and Germany is still something many people would hold him responsible for. I was able to work together with Dr. Stark and make the court wait before making a decision about Mr. Barnes' mental state, and him being there where they can get a chance to observe the treatment is only going to improve his chances."

The idea that the government would not do everything possible to make sure Bucky would be thrown into the Raft was laughable, but one look at T'Challa told Steve that now was not the time to once again question his sister's decision, not when T'Challa already looked like he was having to fight to maintain a calm and neutral expression.

"You should have given me a chance to say goodbye though," Steve said instead, "I have spent weeks here, waiting for Bucky to wake up, you should have told me he would leave so that I could get a chance to talk with him."

"Actually," T'Challa said, and for some reason, Steve felt a strange weight settle in his stomach before T'Challa had even finished the sentence, "Mr. Barnes specifically requested for us not to inform you of his decision until after he had left."

Time slowed down as Steve took in the full meaning of the words. Bucky had left Wakanda, doing the best he could to avoid talking to Steve. Bucky had left Wakanda with the trigger words still in his head, meaning that anyone could have influenced him and sent him straight back to a government that would not hesitate to get him killed.

Steve was vaguely aware of T'Challa telling him that they could arrange for Steve to be able to call Bucky once he had arrived at the treatment facility, but it was as if the words did not get register correctly as panic rose in his chest.

"We have to go save him," Steve said, and for once he was not afraid to let his face show just how hopeless he felt in the situation, hoping that maybe it would make T'Challa realise the gravity of the situation, "you know that Bucky still has the trigger words, anyone could use them to force him to go back—why else would he have asking for me not to be told about him leaving until it was too late to change anything?" he reached out, attempting to grab T'Challa's arm, but the king stepped back, pulling his arm away from Steve.

"I can think of several reasons that do not have anything to do with the trigger words," T'Challa said, "and I can tell you right now that I will not send anyone after him. My sister knows what she is doing, Mr. Barnes himself agreed to go back, and I have Dr. Stark's word that he will do everything in his power to help. I have no doubt that they will be more than capable of figuring out a way to free Mr. Barnes of the trigger words"

Not even the news that Tony had finally come to his sense and realised that he had been wrong about Bucky did anything to help Steve calm down. Just yesterday, hearing about Tony promising to help Bucky would have been enough to brighten any day with the knowledge that it meant that they would soon be able to go home again, but right now, there was no space for anything in Steve's mind other than concern about Bucky.

"If you won't help me I will just have to go and save him myself." Steve took a deep breath and looked at T'Challa, giving him his best disappointed look.

It didn't work as T'Challa simply returned the glare. "Do what you must. But I warn you in advance, if you leave this country, you will not be allowed to return."

"What do you mean?"

How could he keep being surprised by people betraying him? First when Tony had sided with the Accords, then when the world had decided to believe everything the government and UN told them, both Sam and Scott leaving, and now T'Challa having sent Bucky away to the very people who had tried to kill him in the first place and doing everything to prevent Steve from saving him.

"When I allowed you to live here, to live in Wakanda, I went against the wishes of the people of Wakanda. I offered to protect your friend because I owed him a great debt, but there isn't such a connection between you and me. So I will tell you right now that as long as you remain here, I will continue to extend my offer to you as well, but the moment you decide to leave, Wakanda's borders will close behind you."

"But you said you would help us remain safe from the world!" Steve protested.

Other than a raised eyebrow, his words barely elicited a response.

"You are mistaken. I let you stay here in an attempt to keep the world safe from you." T'Challa continued, not granting Steve as much as a single second for the words to sink in. "Now, you need to make your choice. Will you stay or do you wish to leave? You can notify one of the guards by the evening."

He pushed past Steve, leaving the room without another word.

Less than a week later, Steve crossed the border with only the things he had brought with him to Wakanda, a backpack containing the bare essentials slung over his shoulder and a single mission to complete: to save Bucky.


End file.
